Content Analysis of Nader Shah Afshar’s Manuscript Endorsements (Ẓahriya) Endowed to Astan Quds Razavi Library

Objective: Various notes that were written in summary on the pages at the beginning and end of the manuscripts upon its writing and production in order to be preserved and remembered by the owners, scribes, scholars, readers, etc. are called ẓahriya (manuscript endorsement) notes. These ẓahriyas are among the forgotten parts in manuscripts that contain valuable notes and information. The present research is intended to introduce ẓahriyas of manuscripts as important sources of information to researchers, especially in fields that have received little attention and have little information and research background. The present study was carried out with the aim of examining the content of the ẓahriyas of manuscripts with an emphasis on the notes of the Nādīr Shīh Afshār’s endowed manuscript collection preserved in Astan Quds Razavi Library.
Research Method/Approach: In examining the ẓahriyas of the manuscript collection endowed by Nādīr Shīh Afshār preserved in Astan Quds Razavi Library, first the property numbers and manuscript titles were extracted from the computer and extant documents, then by referring to its digital copy and in some cases to the original copy, thematic content of the notes, types of seals, dates of writings and names mentioned in the ẓahriyas and other contents were written down, indexed, and placed in the checklists that were prepared for this purpose. In this research, using the content analysis technique, the notes and seals of the ẓahriyas of 429 copies of the above-mentioned collection were examined and the required data were collected using the checklists that were designed for this purpose, then the data collected by descriptive and statistical methods were analyzed based on the research questions by mentioning the samples of the notes.
Findings and Conclusions: The results of the analysis show that the ẓahriya notes have a specific and significant structure and content that different people، according to their relationship with the copy of these notes, have written these notes on their ẓahriya and these notes can be divided into different types and different seals related to these notes were identified as well. Based on the findings of this research, at the end, some suggestions were made for researching other similar manuscript collections and examining various types of notes and their addenda and seals.